T-Birds to Induct Five into Hall of Fame

Published: January 23, 2013 |
Category: Athletics

Southern Utah University will induct five former athletes into its Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, January 26. Stuart Adams, Cherri Frandsen, Myndee Kay Larsen, Davor Marcelic and Rick Robins will be formally inducted during ceremonies at a banquet that afternoon, and will then be honored at halftime of the Thunderbirds’ men’s basketball game vs. Eastern Washington that evening.

Thunderbird Athletics and the entire SUU community takes great pride in these standout alumni who have made their mark on SUU’s campus and across the nation.

Stuart Adams was a two-time all-American in golf who led the Thunderbirds when they finished seventh at the 1985 NAIA national championships with a fifth-place individual finish. The native of Vacaville, Calif., still holds SUU’s single-round scoring record with a 61 he shot at Boise State during the 1984-85 season, a year in which he led the Thunderbirds in scoring at all but one tournament. A four-time all-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selection and three time RMAC individual champion, he was also the RMAC’s scholar-athlete for golf his junior and senior years as well as SUU’s male athlete of the year in 1984-85. Adams, who is one of just six golfers in the RMAC Hall of Fame, currently practices optometry in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

Cherri Frandsen was a four-year letter winner in women’s basketball who helped lead Southern Utah to three straight American West Conference championships, from 1994-1996. A graduate of Enterprise High School, she was a three-time all-AWC selection and is still the school’s career scoring leader with 1,762 points, while ranking second all-time in field goal percentage, third in rebounding and blocks and fifth in steals. She was named the AWC’s player of the year following her senior season and was a two-time conference tournament MVP as well as Southern Utah’s Athlete of the Year in 1994 and its’ Female Athlete of the Year in 1995. She currently resides in Panguitch, Utah, where she coaches at the youth and high school levels.

Myndee Kay Larsen, who was also a four-year letter winner in women’s basketball at SUU, teamed with Frandsen on three of those AWC championship teams and also was a member of the school’s inaugural Mid-Continent Conference squad. During her time at SUU the Twin Falls, Idaho, native earned first-team CoSIDA GTE Academic All-American honors, was a two-time all-AWC honoree and earned first-team all-Mid-Continent Conference recognition. She set two NCAA records which still stand, for converting 28 consecutive field goal attempts in a row, which helped her to set the NCAA season mark when she connected on 249-of-344 shots, 72.4 percent, as a senior in 1997-98. She is the school’s career field goal percentage and blocks leader and ranks second in rebounds and fourth in free throw percentage. Larsen, who went on to serve as an assistant coach and administrator at SUU, is currently an assistant commissioner in The Summit League.

Davor Marcelic played at SUU from 1987 to 1992 and scored an SUU men’s record 1,710 points along the way. The native of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, is one of just two Thunderbird men’s players to surpass 1,500 points and he also holds the school’s single-season scoring record of 659 points, which he scored in 1991-92 when he led the Thunderbirds to a 20-8 record, the school’s second-best mark during its NCAA era. In addition to his scoring marks he is still among the school’s top-10 in career free throw shooting, 3-point shooting, assists and rebounding. SUU’s men’s basketball player of the year in 1990-91, he was the team’s scoring leader during his junior and senior seasons. He currently works in real estate in his native Croatia.

Rick Robins was a four-year starter at quarterback for the Thunderbirds who left the school as its career total offense, total plays, passing attempts, pass completions, passing yards and passing touchdowns leader and he still ranks among the top three in all of those categories. When the native of Scipio, Utah, graduated from SUU in 1997 he also held two of the top four single-season marks for pass attempts, including the record; two of the top-three season completion marks, including the record; and two of the top-four single-season passing yards marks, including the record; as well as two of the top-three single-seasons for total yards and plays. All but one of the single-season marks are still among the school’s top ten. Robins is currently the principal at Utah’s Juab High School.

Tickets for the afternoon banquet honoring these standout athletes may be purchased by contacting Kit Janes in the SUU athletic department at janes@suu.edu. Tickets to the Men’s Basketball game vs. Eastern Washington where the inductees will be publicly honored are available trough the Centrum Ticket Office at 435-586-7872.